Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service about what a Labour government could do for the NHS in Somerset if elected, the shadow health secretary said he wanted to give it “the tools to do the job” but he would not “micromanage.” There are a host of issues facing the NHS in all parts of Somerset, from the planned loss of the hyper-acute stroke unit at Yeovil Hospital, to the lack of a 24 hour A&E at Weston General, and difficulty finding an NHS dentist across the county . Mr Streeting said: “I think it’s an indictment on 14 years of Conservative government that the NHS is unrecognisable from the one that we handed over to them in 2010.
The last Labour government delivered the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction in history. We did it before and with the support of the country on July 4 we can do it again.” The decision by Somerset NHS’ integrated care board to close the hyper-acute stroke unit at Yeovil Hospital has been condemned by candidates to be Yeovil’s next MP.
Liberal Democrat hopeful Adam Dance has called for the decision to be called in by the health secretary. Is that something a Labour Party in government would do? Mr Streeting said: “I don’t want to see services closing and I want to see more services closer to where people live. I know lots of local leaders are having to make really difficult and in some cases unpalatable decisions because of staffing shortages and resource constraints and I want to work with .